Sequential switch for an automatic vending machine or the like



Aug. 17, 1965 J. BRADY ETAL SEQUENTIAL SWITCH FOR AN AUTOMATIC VENDINGMACHINE OR THE LIKE Original Filed March 14. 1957 Illrll I NVENTORS.KENNETH JOHN BRADY NEAL TOWNSEND BY V fi F PATENT AGENT United StatesPatent 3,201,534 SEQUENTIAL SWITCH FOR AN AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE 0RTHELIKE Kenneth John Brady, C2236 Baywood Ave., Hayward, Calif., andNeal Townsend, San Francisco, Calif.; said Townsend assignor to saidBrady Original application Mar. 14, 1957, Ser. No. 646,050, now PatentNo. 3,001,670, dated Sept. 26, 1961. Divided and this application Sept.25, 1961, Ser. No. 146,674

2 Claims. (Cl. 20033) This is a division of application Serial No.646,050, filed March 14, 1957, now US. Patent No.' 3,001,670, issuedSeptember 26, 1961. The present invention relates to apparatus fordispensing articles and more particularly to a sequential switch forautomatic vending machines for cigarettes or the like.

Vending machines for various articles and particularly for cigarettesand candy have come into wide use; most of these (are now completelyautomatic in that to obtain a selected article, the purchaser needmerely push a but-ton to energize an electric dispensing mechanism whicheffects delivery of the selected article. Since a cigarette vendingmachine must contain a number of different brands to be commerciallyacceptable, a plurality of dispensing mechanisms and associated storagechutes for the articles must be provided. Costs of the machines r-unhigh as a consequence.

It is a general object of the present invention to reduce the cost of avending machine without reducing its capacity by means of an overallsimplification of design.

More particularly, it is a feature of the invention to reduce the numberof expensive electro-mechanical elements in an automatic vending machinewithout destroying its fully automatic operation.

A further feature concerns the simplification of indi vidual part designso that each part is adapted for mass production by automatic equipmentwherefore the cost per element is lowered.

Another feature concerning the design of individual parts enables asingle part, in many instances,-to accomplish several functions formerlyrequiring a combination of several parts.

Simultaneously, the parts are designed to facilitate assembly operationswhereby turther cost reduction is eifected.

In addition to the cost of the machine, the present invention is alsodirected toward the solution of problems encountered in the use of anyvending machine. It is observed, for example, that certain brands ofcigarettes are of greater popularity, which necessitates in knownvending machines the utilization of several supply chutes or hoppers andassociated vending mechanisms for a known brand of high popularity.

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a sequential vendingmechanism whereby the pushing of a single button will dispense anarticle in turn from one of a series of supply chutes containingarticles of like nature (e.g., the same brand of cigarette). Thisfeature, it may be observed, will save the customer from theinconvenience of searching through a large number of buttons and thepossibility of depressing a button associated with an emptied supplychute. Addition-ally, as will become apparent hereinafter, this featureeiiects further savings in the apparatus cost.

These and other objects of the invention will become move apparent froma perusal of the following description of a preferred embodiment asillustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG, 1 is an enlarged top plan view of a sequential relay arrangementforming part of the machine,

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the sequential relay 3,201,534 PatentedAug. 17, 1965 structure, portions thereof broken away to illustrateinterior details of construction, and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 33 of FIG. 2.

As described in our co-pending application, Ser. No. 646,050, filedMarch 14, 1957, now United States Patent No. 3,001,670, issued September26, 1961, a cigarette vending machine includes a plurality ofvertically-disposed chutes from which a single package of cigarettes canbe dispensed by energization of a solenoid-controlled actuatingmechanism connected to a suitable A.C. voltage source. However, in viewof the aforementioned fact that certain brands of cigarettes are morepopular than others so that it may be desirable to have three chutes,for example, loaded with a single brand of cigarettes, the connection tosuch source is arranged through a sequential relay generally indicatedat in FIGS. 1 and 2. The use .of such a relay, as will become moreapparent from the detailed description to follow, enables a cigarettepackage of a popular brand loaded into three chutes, for example, to bedispensed from one chute then another then the third and then a repeatedsequential dispensing from the three chutes so that the supply in thethree chutes again is uniformly depleted. The desired number ofsequential relays 80 are suitably mounted on the vending machine and thedetailed structure of an individual relay 80 is illustrated in FIGS. 1,2 and 3.

The wires from a number of the solenoids forming parts of thedescribed'aotuating means are connected to a plurality of terminals 81through 86 that are mounted in aligned relationship on an insulatingplate 87 as shown clearly in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 1, a bus bar 88 isarranged on a second insulating plate 89 that is held in spaced relationto the first insulating plate 87 by means of an intermediate thirdinsulating plate 90. When the three plates 87, 89, 90 are securedtogether by means of suitable machine screws 91, the bus bar 88 isaligned with but spaced from the plurality of terminals 81 through 86. Aratchet 92 composed of insulating material is disposed between the twoouter plates 87, 89 within a cutaway portion of the inter-mediate plate90 so as to slide along a path substantially parallel to the alignedterminals 81 through 86 and bus bar 88. The ratchet 92 carries a smallconnector 93 which may take the form of a carbon brush that is adaptedto establish connection between one or another of the terminals 81through 86 and the bus bar 88, (see FIG. 3). The slidable ratchet 92 isnormally urged to its lowermost position, as viewed in FIG. 2) by a coilspring 94 tensioned between a screw 95 projecting from the ratchet 92and a bar 96 firmly attached to the stationary insulating plate 89. Fromsuch lowermost position, the slidable ratchet 92 is moved upwardly byengagement of a pawl 97 with the ratchet teeth. This pawl 97 projectsthrough a central cutaway portion in the plates 87, 89 from a plunger 98mounted for axial and rotative displacement relative to an act-natingsolenoid 99. A coil spring is compressed between the pawl 97 andstationary housing of the solenoid 99 so as to normally urge the plunger98 away from the solenoid and such spring is also placed under apredetermined rotative tension so as to urge the plunger 98 and the pawl97 thereon in a rotative direction such that the pawl is constantlyurged against the teeth of the ratchet 92. When the solenoid 99 isenergized from a suitable power source 101 by the depression of a button102, as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 1, the plunger 98 is drawndownwardly carrying the pawl 97 there-with. During such downwardmovement of the pawl 97, it rides over the rear sloping face of theadjacent tooth pivoting against the action of the coil spring 100 andultimately is urged by such coil spring into the next toothed recess ofthe ratchet 92. Upon subsequent deenergization of the solenoid 99, theplunger 98 and the pawl 97 thereon move upwardly and the ratchet 92 ismoved by the engagement of the pawl therewith. It will be understoodthatlthe coil spring 100 that ac-tuates the return movement of theplunger 98 is stronger than the coil spring 94 which tends to hold theratchet 92 in its lowermos-t position. Thus the ratchet 92 can moveupwardly against the action of the latter coil spring 94.

The distance between adjoining teeth of the ratchet 92 is equivalent tothat between adjacent individual terminals 81 through 86 so that asingle actuation of the ratchet 92 by the pawl 97 will effect movementof the connector 93 carried by the ratchet 92 precisely from oneterminal to the next. Thus, ultimtaely, upon each actuation of thesequential relay 80 through depression of the button 102, connection isestablished between the AC. source (not shown) connected to the bus bar88 of the relay and one of the terminals 81 through 86,,such connectionprogressing sequentially from the lowermost terminal to the uppermost,as viewed in FIG. 2. After each successive upward displacement of theratchet 92, a detent 105 is urged by a leaf spring 106 into a positionof insertion in the adjoining ratchet teeth to hold the same againstdownward displacement by action. of the spring 94 during the period whenthe pawl 97 is moving and has released its operative engagement with agiven tooth.

After the ratchet 92 has reached its uppermost position, means areprovided to remove both the detent 105 and the pawl 97 from operativeengagement with the ratchet so that the same can be returned by the coilspring 94 to its lowermost position wherefore a renewed sequentialconnection with the series of terminals 81 through 86 can be instigatedin the described fashion. In order to effect such release, a releaselever 107 is pivoted on the insulated plate 87. Such lever 107 isnormally held in an inoperative position by a coil spring 108 tensionedbetween thelever and a pin 109 on the plate 87 so as to urge the leverin a clockwisedirection to the position indicated in FIG. 2. However,when the machine screw 95 moves upwardly therewith to the uppermostposition, such screw comes into engagement with the release lever 107 tourge the same in a counterclockwise direction against the action of thetensioned spring 108. When the solenoid 99 is now energized, the pawl 97moves against the edge of the lever 107 pivoting outwardly until itlodges in a notch 110 at the outward end thereof. Upon a subsequentde'energization of the solenoid 99, the'pawl 97 moves with the leveragainst the rear face of the described detent 105 to pivot the sameagainst the action of the leaf spring 106 away from engagement with theadjacent tooth. Therefore, both the pawl 97 anddetent 105 are displacedaway from the ratchet 92 and the latter can return under the action ofthe tensioned'coil spring 94 to its lowermost position. When the machinescrew 95 is removed from engagement with the release lever 107, thelatter is rotated by the coil spring 108 and releases the pawl 97. Thesequential relay 80 is now ready for a repeated sequence of connectionswith the terminals 81 through 86.

Six terminals -81 through 86 are shown in the drawingwill obviously beactuated one step sooner and only five terminals 81 through 85 will beincluded in the sequential operation. In the same fashion, if the screw95 is moved to the next hole 112, only four terminals 81 through 84 willbe incorporated in the sequential series to which connection is made.Thus,a popular brand of cigarettes which normally require the actuationof the release means associated with five chutes can be adjusted toaccommodate merely four chutes. Regardless of the number of chutescontaining a single brand of cigarettes, only one push button 102 isrequired as a consequence of the described sequential relay operation.

Various alterations and/or modifications can obviously be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. Consequently, the foregoingdescription of a preferred embodiment of-the invention is to beconsidered as purely exemplary and not in a limiting sense, and thescope of the invention is to be in dicated by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A sequential relay which comprises a bus bar, a series of terminals,a connector movable to establish connection between said bus bar and oneof said terminals, means operative to effect movement of said connectorsequentially from one terminal to another including a ratchet attachedto said connector for movement therewith and an actuating pawl thereformounted on an axial ly and rotatably displacea-ble plunger for'operativeengagement with said ratchet.

2. A sequential relay according to claim 1 which comprises means forautomatically returning said connector into connecting position with thefirst of said terminals upon completion of the sequential connection ofsaid connector with a predetermined number of said terminals.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT K.SCI-IAEFER, Acting Primary Examiner.

MAX L. LEVY, ROBERT K, SCHAEFER, Examiners.

1. A SEQUENTIAL RELAY WHICH COMPRISES A BUS BAR, A SERIES OF TERMINALS,A CONNECTOR MOVABLE TO ESTABLISH CONNECTION BETWEEN SAID BUS BAR AND ONEOF SAID TERMINALS, MEANS OPERATIVE TO EFFECT MOVEMENT OF SAID CONNECTORSEQUENTIALLY FROM ONE TERMINAL TO ANOTHER INCLUDING A RATCHET ATTACHEDTO SAID CONNECTOR FOR MOVEMENT THEREWITH AND AN ACTUATING PAWL THEREFORMOUNTED ON AN AXIALLY AND ROTATABLY DISPLACEABLE PLUNGER FOR OPERATIVEENGAGEMENT WITH SAID RATCHET.